Well, the time has finally come. After much
soul-searching, a lot of bills, and the overwhelming need/desire
for Sara and I to start a family, I've decided to take the drastic
step of selling my Mustang. I've been pondering the idea for
quite some time, and it's just become too much for me to deal
with. The car's been sitting in my garage since Sara and I
have moved here, and I hate to see it wasting away.
Someone else can have the joy of finishing it. It was a
difficult choice, but one that I can say has actually made my
interest in racing go up.
Having the opportunity during the last year and a half, as
editor-in-chief/assistant photographer of Hardcore, to witness
firsthand the dedication of the NMRA racers to their steeds, has
brought to the forefront of my mind the reasons which I have made
this decision. To put it bluntly, I'm simply not that
dedicated to working on it. I've witnessed engine swaps
between rounds (?), head swaps between rounds, torque converter
changes, and the like. I simply do not want to be bothered
with that. Don't get me wrong, I love to race, I love the
thrill of the launch, I love to beat the other guy. Just not
enough to continue the construction of my car.
When I originally purchased it way back when, in June of 1994,
it was because I wanted an injected 'Stang, like all my friends
had. Yes, I was part of the "Me-too" club. A typical
conversation in our crowd, back then, went something like
this. "You have 3.73's?" "Me too!" "You
have a short throw ( in my case, Pro 5.0) shifter?" "Me
too!" I bought the car and really had no intentions of
making it into the beast it is today. It was a one-owner
1986 GT. Had been owned by a woman, no less. When I
took it home off the lot, with the mileage of 76,000, it had not a
single modification done to it. I had to do the 10 minute
tune up the day after I bought it. Removed the air silencer,
turned up the timing (she liked 14 degrees best), etc.
I went to the Ford Motorsport Nationals a few days after I bought
it. Bought the aforementioned Pro 5.0 shifter and an
off-road H-pipe. Then, in the first bout of lunacy,
attempted to swap out the factory catalytic converter h-pipe in the driveway, on my back, with no air
tools. Anyone ever tried to remove 8 year old, 76,000 mile
factory collector bolts with no air tools? Then you know what I'm
talking about. I must have spent $2000 in the first month on
the shifter, roller rockers, full exhaust from the headers back,
gears, etc.
The car has been through it all. I ran the factory motor
for a while, then decided that 13.50's wasn't enough for me.
So, being the poor college dropout that I was, I did the cheap
thing. Yup. The little blue bottle.
That was good for 12 teens at 110 MPH. At the time, I even
held the "quickest 5.0 in the crowd" title for a few weeks.
Then my friend Derek had to go and add a second stage to his
notchback and go 11.80's. Jerk. But I was loving life!
I even had the first Tremec 3550 of the crowd, way back in 1995,
when they first came out. I bought it from the legendary
"Wild" Bill Devine when he used to work at Dayton Ford in New
Jersey. Remember them? That's when it all started to
go downhill. I over-revved it one night at the track, when I
was hot-lapping it. It started feeling kinda sluggish to me,
so I decided it was time to buy a beater. The car came off
the road to be fixed. We pulled it apart in my friend Mike's
driveway. Ever seen 16 bent pushrods before? I
have. I've also seen some nice factory '86 pistons with
custom valve reliefs cut into them. So I bit the bullet, and
decided to build a new motor for it.
At the time, I deemed the factory fuel injection setup too
expensive to modify. So I took the plunge and decided to
build a carbureted motor. Whoops. Remember why I
originally bought her? Yup. So now I'm back to square
one. I had a motor built by a shop that will remain
un-named. Spent all the money I had (and then some) to do
it. I got approximately 4 months out of it before I decided
to get stupid and drive it to the Jersey Shore. Those of you
who know me know that the shore is about an hour and a half or so,
on the highway, from my house. This in a car that really
isn't complete. I had the aforementioned carbureted motor in
it. It was approximately 11 to 1 compression, with Edelbrock
Performer RPM heads, a Torker 289 intake, and a Holley 700
Double-Pumper atop it. I had also ordered up a brand new
Performance Automatic C4 transmission with a 3500 stall speed
converter. I had 4.10's in the car. And then proceeded
to take it for this drive on the highway at about 70 MPH. By
the time I got there I was nearly deaf from the drone of the 2
chamber Flowmasters, and no tailpipes. No radio,
no A/C, nothing. But guess what? It was still fun!
So anyway, I spend a few days there, with a friend of mine, and
then decide to drive home. My gas gauge wasn't working
right, due to the sump I had installed. So I hit the gas
station, and fill it up. The drive home was rather
uneventful, so when I got there, I met up with a few of the local
Stang Gang. We proceed out into Roosevelt Boulevard (the
local 6 lane wide street hangout) and hit the lights. There
was another friend of mine (Jay) who had just put a B&M 144
PowerCharger onto his Capri, myself, Jeff (who owned a 95
Crapmaro), and a few other Stangers. Jeff and Jay lined up
at the first light, and made a quick pass. I was in the
other set of lanes, and watched Jay turn off for home with a blown
head gasket. Jeff then inched over until he was next
to me. We caught a light that was just turning red, and even
got a chance to do a burnout. The lights dropped, he got out
on me ( I was on street tires) and then I went past him like he
was standing still. I shifted second, then third, looked at
the fuel pressure gauge, noticed it was at zero, and looked into
the rearview mirror. I couldn't see anything though, just
white smoke. CRAP!!!!!! My brand new motor!!!!
So a few weeks later, I finally have the chance to take it to
the local race shop to have it pulled apart. I had hatched
out a plan with this guy to fix whatever it is, complete the
installation of the parts for the rear that I've accumulated, and
install a 10 point cage, in anticipation of buying another nitrous
kit. When he finally takes it apart, he finds a piston with
a nice hole in it. What the heck?!? I didn't even get
to beat it too bad. We thought that the reason it had done
that was the fact that I must not have had enough gas in the tank,
after the trip back from the shore, to keep the fuel pump supplied
with the volume it needed. So now I have a brand new, $6000
motor with a holed piston. I work out a deal with this guy
to get it all back together, with a new set of 13 to 1 JE slugs,
some port work on the heads, and a main girdle, along with the
cage, etc.
Two years later, I pick the car up. It's now 1999.
Yes, it took him two years. So I take it home, with no motor
(he was finishing it) and get it ready for the new bullet to be
installed. I paid him approximately $8000 between the motor,
cage, rear, and some other miscellaneous work that he did. I
painted the engine compartment, did some wiring work, and waited
for my motor to be complete. About 4 months later, I went
and picked up the motor. We got it installed, and did some
tuning on the new carb I had had built. It was running
awesome! I got a chance to go and put some street miles on
it in the next few weeks, before the first track outing of the
season. I was having the time of my life, even though it did
take him forever to get it done for me.
Fast forward to track day. We loaded up the car, and hit
the road. I had planned to take it easy on the first few
passes, since I wasn't real sure how the car was going to react
with the new motor in it. First pass off the trailer,
it went 13.52 at approximately 109 MPH. It felt great, even
though I was short shifting it by about 2000 RPM. Went back
to the lanes, and let it cool down. I figured, since it had
felt good, I would take it out and drive it a little harder the
next time around. I staged, launched at about 2500 on the
footbrake, and let her fly! It planted me back into the
seat, I shifted second, and heard a loud POP. So I let off
it, and then got back into it, Went another 13.50 or so, but
I was a little worried about the pop. Went back, checked the
plugs, and looked at everything else, and it looked good, so I
cooled it down for a while, and went back to the lanes. Same
procedure as before at the launch. I shifted, second,
everything sounded good, so I kept into it. I was flying!
Then I shifted third. POP! I look down, and see that I
have no oil pressure. CRAP!!!!! Not again! YOU
%^@#$^% POS CAR!!!!! I pull it to the side , and coast
down the track. I'm parked just through the traps, and I put
the hood up. I can't see anything wrong, but it won't start.
So I wait for the rescue truck to come get me. We tow it
back to my pit, and I have my friend look everything over, while I
try to start it up. Immediately he gives me the "cut-it-off"
sign. I go out, and he points at my distributor. Why
is there antifreeze leaking out around it?!?!?!?!? That's
not supposed to be there! Not good!
Needless to say, we then load it onto the trailer.
The worst part, I think, is
that my future wife is in the stands with my future mother-in-law.
Back to my garage it goes, where we spend the rest of the night
pulling the motor out. Onto the stand it goes. Off
comes the oil pan, and there, in all their glory, stand 4 broken
main journals. Needless to say, I was out of commission for
a bit.
Finally, in March of 2001, I convince Sara (now my wife) to let
me spend our tax return on a new motor. I locate and
purchase a 408 motor with Twisted Wedge R heads, with hopes of
competing in NMRA Hot Street. At the time, HS was running in
the high 9's. The engine I bought went 9.96 in the car it
was removed from, with only 6 passes on it. So I assume this
will get me into the game. I take the engine to my new
builder (Frank Bash Racing Engines, in Penndel, PA). Frank
pulls it apart, and tells me I need to have it line bored.
So I have this done, and have the engine re-built. I'm now
into it for about $8000, just for the motor. I sell
off a few of the older 302 based parts I have, to get the rest of
the stuff I'll need to get the 408 running. I get all the
rest of the parts, save some nuts and bolts. I upgrade the
front end, the brakes, and just about everything else that I can.
I get it all installed into the car, and am missing only a few of
the odds and ends to finish it up. This takes me a bit of
time, so now fast forward to November of 2001.
I'm reading e-mail from a Mustang mailing list that I'm on, and
come across a plug for a website. This website. I surf
on over, and check it out. COOL! Everything I had
always been looking for, but nobody ever had. A neutral
Mustang-only Drag Racing site. That was
Hardcore's first day in existence. I happened to notice that
there was a chatroom, which was another thing that none of the
Mustang sites had been able to pull off with any success. I
popped in that first night, and met Brian, and some others.
Tater, I think, and BigEd, and maybe some other people I can't
remember at the moment. I found myself spending more and
more time on the computer, and an awful lot of it here at
Hardcore. One night, in the chatroom, Brian asked me if I'd
like to be a moderator of a few forums. I gladly accept, as
Hardcore really had become a second home for me. So then
I've become, officially, a moderator here. Anyone see where
this is going? A few more weeks go by, and again, Brian and
I are talking in the chatroom. He mentions to me that he's
looking for more help with the website, as it was growing far
beyond his wildest dreams at that point. He thinks that he
could really use an editor, since he wasn't the greatest writer [ his words, not mine :-)
]. I mentioned that
I would be more than happy to help in out in that capacity, as I
have a knack for writing/editing/grammar, etc. So
approximately March of 2002, I became the official
Editor-In-Chief of www.hardcore50.com.
Meanwhile, my car hadn't been touched in weeks. My workload at
my real job was greater than it had been in the past, and I was
finding myself doing more and more things for Hardcore.
Brian and I had made some plans to do some traveling last season,
to attend some of the races that were closer to us, and also get
material for the website. Most of my free time, other than that
spent with Sara, involved doing something
(writing/editing/moderating forums) for Hardcore.
So my car has been sitting since September of 1999.
It's got a killer motor in it. A tubular K-member.
Aerospace Components front drag brakes. A Performance
Automatic Super Comp C4. All Moser components in the rear.
A 10 point roll cage. And I can't finish it. I enjoy
what I'm doing for Hardcore entirely too much to even WANT to
finish it. I'd love to drive it, I just don't want to work
on it. I never had the opportunity to write anything that
the public had seen before, and I find it addicting. I also find
the photography end of this job fascinating. I think I've
truly found my calling as editor. I get to be involved,
without spending any of the money, and I watch all the racers
who've fascinated me for years. Only I get to watch from the
bird's eye view of the starting line. Let me tell you, if
you've never been 5 feet away from a Billy Glidden or Donny Walsh
Jr. burnout, then you have NOT experienced life.
This is without a doubt, one of the hardest decisions I've ever
had to make. I've got 10 years of blood, sweat, and tears
holed up in the nooks and crannies of that car. Not to
mention a whole LOT of money. I'm still paying for parts
that the people I sold them to don't even own anymore. And I
think that tells me it's time to hang it up. I can't compete
with the dedication the racers have shown me. At least not
in the sense of working on a car. I definitely give this job
my dedication. I spend time working on things when I should
really be sleeping. Like now, for instance. It's 2:25
AM, and I have to get up for my real (paying) job at 6AM.
But this story has taken on a life of it's own for me, and
actually writing it has been extremely therapeutic, and has helped
me finalize my decision to actually go through with it. I
thank all of you for giving me a place to air my thoughts, for
giving me a great place to hang out, and for the friendship and
hospitality that you've shown me over the past year and a half.
You'll never know what it means to me.
Jason Reiss
Editor-in-Chief, The Hardcore Mustang Drag Racers Forum
